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Jays’ Drew Hutchison winning believers

ST. PETERSBURG, FLA.—Joel Grampietro, the scout who signed Drew Hutchison, didn’t think much of the young right-hander when he first laid eyes on him.

“He was very skinny. Playing a little bit of short, pitching a little. He wasn’t really a prospect.”

Toronto Blue Jays starting pitcher Drew Hutchison warms up before the second inning of a spring training baseball game against the Baltimore Orioles in Sarasota, Fla., Saturday, March 1, 2014. The Orioles won 9-7. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar) (Gene J. Puskar / The Associated Press)

It was at a high school game in Florida and, like so many scouting stories, Grampietro was there to see another guy: Casey Kelly, who later that year would be a first-round draft pick of the Boston Red Sox.

Kelly was pitching for Sarasota, but he was also one of the team’s best hitters. Hutchison, meanwhile, was just a sophomore, playing for his hometown of Lakeland and, like Grampietro says, wasn’t on any prospect radars.

Though the teams were rivals, Sarasota was dominating this particular game, and things were getting a little out of hand. Lakeland was running out of pitchers, so Hutchison, who hadn’t taken the mound all season, was tapped to try to mop up what was left.

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With Kelly at the plate, Grampietro recalls watching as Hutchison — all 165 pounds of him — stared down Sarasota’s best player and drilled him with the first pitch.

“It gives you a little bit of insight into the kid’s competitive nature,” says Grampietro, who now works for the Chicago White Sox. “When there was a threat against him he was not going to run from that threat; he was going to challenge it and say, ‘Okay, I don’t care if my team’s losing, you’re not going to take advantage of my team.’ He wasn’t someone who took to losing or was to be taken lightly on the field. I think that’s kind of what’s showing in his career.”

A 15th-round draft pick (460th overall), Hutchison has made a habit of punching above his weight. Though his personality is decidedly understated, everyone who knows him raves about his competitiveness on the mound, which will be put to the test this year more than ever before. Returning to the big leagues after spending most of the last 18 months on the disabled list following Tommy John surgery, Hutchison — who takes the mound Tuesday for the Blue Jays in Tampa — will once again have to exceed expectations if the club hopes to contend this season.

If the 23-year-old can take a step forward and be an impact starter for the Jays, the fact that GM Alex Anthopoulos failed to acquire a proven veteran might be forgotten.

Nobody’s betting on Hutchison to do it, but that’s to be expected. That’s been the case all his life. It’s part of the reason why Grampietro had to lobby so hard for the Jays to draft him back in 2009 — even in the 15th round.

“If you look at him on video he’s not going to show you anything that’s going to stick out and make you go, ‘Oh wow!’ ” the scout says. “But if you know him as an individual or you watch him over a period of time or you just let whatever he does come to you, you’re going to see those things that you wouldn’t see otherwise.”

Even today, Hutchison isn’t much to look at. Though his velocity has been ticking upward, he’s not overpowering by any means and his raw stuff isn’t exceptional at first glance. Yet, he has succeeded at every level he has pitched. Following the 2009 draft, he rose rapidly through the Jays’ development ranks, advancing three levels in one season, pitching just 31 2/3 innings in Double-A before he got the call to the big leagues in April 2012. He made 10 big-league starts of varying quality before June 15, when on his 12th pitch of the game he felt a burning sensation in his elbow. Season-ending surgery and a full year of rehab followed. Tuesday marks the end of his long road back to the majors.

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“It’s a good feeling just to be healthy, to feel strong and just be a baseball player again,” he recently told the Star.

Anthopoulos, who at the end of last season made clear his intent to upgrade the starting rotation, has since suggested that those needs became less urgent after watching Hutchison pitch in the Arizona Fall League. Over the course of spring training, you could see why. He was the Jays’ most consistently impressive starting pitcher, striking out more than a batter an inning while giving up just three earned runs in 15 frames. His place in the rotation, a question mark at the outset of camp, was no longer in doubt just a couple of weeks in.

Hutchison, who grew up idolizing Pedro Martinez — another skinny right-hander with a mean streak — offers a knowing smile when asked about that high school game in Sarasota more than six years ago.

“Yeah, I remember that,” he said. “It was just one of those things. We ran out of pitching and it just wasn’t a good night. Things happen. It’s just a part of the game where you don’t like how certain things are going . . . Over the next two years we played a lot of good games with them.”

But Hutchison says he didn’t actually hit Kelly, just brushed him back. “I made a statement.”

However it happened, it left an impression on Grampietro, who made a note to follow up down the road, which he did two years later, when Hutchison had grown into a poised pitcher with above-average command, though less-than-overpowering velocity.

Even then, Grampietro had to battle hard to get Hutchison on the Jays’ draft board.

“I pounded my fist on the table and said, ‘Hey, I know what I saw,’ ” Grampietro recalls. “We knew what he had inside him, and what you saw on video couldn’t measure what the kid has internally.”

Mike Campbell, Hutchison’s former high school coach, agrees with that assessment.

“He’s got a lot behind the belt buckle,” Campbell says over the phone from his home in Lakeland. “He’s not afraid.”

Despite having a great sense of humour, Hutchison could be downright fearsome on days he was starting, Campbell said. “I don’t know if it’s a will to win or if he just hates to lose.”

Hutchison says he likes it when people doubt him, because it gives him a chance to prove them wrong.

“I’ve had to prove myself at every level,” he said. “As far as being under the radar, it’s just always kind of been that way for me. I don’t know why.”

If Hutchison continues to pitch as he has of late, he won’t remain unheralded for long. Either way, he says he’s looking forward to the challenge.

“Every opportunity you get, you have to make the most of it,” he says. “And if there isn’t an opportunity you have to create one for yourself. I feel like I’ve always done that.”

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